I’m hoping to have the first draft of The Perfect Duke done by May 28 or 29.

This is one of those stories that will be closer to 70,000 words. The first draft might have me at 72,000, but once I edit, that will get trimmed back. I always lose about 2,000 words in edits.

I usually average 60,000 words. Since it is a longer book, it’s taken me longer to finish up. I’m in the home stretch (as it were). I know what’s going to happen and how things will play out at this point. I left a thread hanging that I plan to pick up in Book 5 of this series, which is Kidnapping the Viscount. This thread has to do with Ladies of Grace. This thread has been running through the entire series since the end of Book 2.

I’ll let you know when the book is due out once I get it all edited and ready.

The Perfect Wife’s release date has been pushed back.

It couldn’t be helped. I held off on pushing it back for as long as I could, but given sick kids, car repairs, and house repairs, I lost about a week and a half of writing time. Now that I have to rush The Perfect Duke, this will make my timeline even more unstable. So in order to get things back on track, I moved the release date back to late August. (It was originally supposed to be out in July.)

This story is turning out to be longer than I expected, and I don’t want to rush the ending. I don’t want to ever rush the flow of any book I write. It’s not fair to you if I did that. I want to honor everyone who reads this by giving them my 100% effort. Originally, I was planning on 50,000 words. I’ll be closer to 60,000 words when all is said and done. Right now I’m at 46,000 words. So I’m making progress, but it’s slower than I had hoped. Also, I want to give my poor editing team more time on this one. I just sent out emails this morning asking them to give priority to The Perfect Duke. I don’t want to do that with this book, too.

I’m 1/4 of the way through One Enchanted Evening.

Progress is slow on this because I’ve been focusing on the two books up above. I hit the 19K word mark yesterday, which is good considering how much I haven’t been able to write in this one. I’m enjoying this spin on Cinderella. It’s fun to work with a heroine who has a dark past that she needs to overcome.

I’m at the halfway point in The Outlaw’s Bride

My goal is 250 words each writing day on this one, but I typically end up with around 400 words on average. At the beginning of May, I was at 25,164 words into this book. As of yesterday, I reached 29,322 words. This is slow going, but this one isn’t due out for a while anyway. So I have plenty of time on it.

I’m not going to publish this one until Book 2 is up on pre-order.

Now for a look ahead…

I like looking ahead to what’s coming because it helps me stay motivated to stick with my current works in progress. Around the halfway point in the story, I tend to lose steam. The beginning and ending are easy. The middle is harder because everything has to connect from the beginning to the end.

Kidnapping the Viscount will be the next book I’ll start.

This is book 5 in the Marriage by Fate Series.

• Book 1: The Reclusive Earl
• Book 2: Married In Haste
• Book 3: Make Believe Bride
• Book 4: The Perfect Duke
• Book 5: Kidnapping the Viscount
• I’m not sure there will be a Book 6 or not.

This will be Miss Duff’s romance. Remember Lady Eloise telling Miss Duff not to accept a certain gentleman’s proposal because he was a viscount instead an earl, marquess, or duke? Well, Miss Duff has a lot of regret over letting a good man get away, so she’s going to take matters into her own hands and get him back through any means necessary.

(I told you guys I was going to go back to heroines who are stronger than what I’ve been doing, and this one qualifies. For those who liked the heroine in Patty’s Gamble, you’ll probably like this heroine, too. For those who don’t, this might be a book you’ll want to skip.)

Also, I need Miss Duff to help build up Ladies of Grace. The group only has three members at this point. So this will continue the subplot that’s been running through here for the past couple of books in this series. And yes, Lady Eloise will play a minor role.

The Imperfect Husband will be the last book in the Misled Mail Order Brides Series.

• Book 1: The Bride Price
• Book 2: The Rejected Groom
• Book 3: The Perfect Wife
• Book 4: The Imperfect Husband

Annabelle Larson isn’t a mail-order bride, but when I created the series, I didn’t think I’d be doing her story. Since she pops up so much in Book 3, it made sense to have her book in #4. I’m not sure how I’m going to get her married to the hero yet. The details are being worked out in Book 3 as we speak. But I expect this to be a lot of fun since there’s going to be some great humor in it. I’d love for it to be a romantic comedy. We’ll see what happens once I’m writing it. The characters ultimately decide the tone of the book.